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There are two interesting changes for us Disc priests. Are they nummy morsels for us to love? Well…sorta

Renewed Hope is changing: 60 seconds instead of 20 but with a 20 sec cooldown.

Previously, this meant a disc priest could give their raid, constant 3% mitigation each and every fight. This is only a problem for fights like Sindrigosa where your disc priest can (and likely will) be frost tombed and the Renewed Hope falls off. Actually, looking directly at this fight I can see where the increased duration will come in handy. With so much raid damage flying around having the extra time on Renewed Hope will give more of a buffer if/when your priest gets frozen.

But the 20 second cooldown *shrug* I had written out this brilliant rant about it until my brain kicked in and I sat and thought about it instead of knee jerked it. 20sec out of the 60 sec the buff is active which means by the time it falls off the cooldown is over and you are casting it again. The only change I see is that instead of having the buff renewed with every shield I cast there will be a pause where for 20 seconds it doesn’t renew.

Overall, it is a gain. I don’t see this change affecting the way we cast PW:S or the amount of time the raid is receiving the buff, expect for specific situations such as Sindrigosa. For these situations it is a net gain for the raid as a whole. As the Disc Moto says: Less Damage Taken is Less Damage Healed.

Tier 10 4piece set changes!

10% increase to Circle of Healing and 5% to Power Word: Shield

I keep my eyes on the forums and heard the complaints that the bonus lacks the sexiness of hoped for after the lackluster bonus previously. Honestly, it doesn’t bother me. Looking purely from a disc point of view they increased the effectiveness of my core ability.

There have been some arguments that the division of the bonus is unfairly weighted to holy priest. First, their % is higher and in a single cast affects more members. Second, they can take advantage of the increased PW:S whereas a disc priest only benefits from the PW:S portion as they lack CoH.

To address the first complaint: Where they CoH% is higher, this spell is on a 6sec cooldown where PW:S is an instant cast on the Global cooldown. Also a holy priest has minimal control on who CoH will heal, what control they have is based on who they are centering the spell off of. IE choosing to cast it on melee vs. range clusters. Disc chooses who is going to get their shields with pinpoint accuracy. Ultimately, it doesn’t bother me that the coefficients aren’t the same. Do I wish they were the same? Sure! I want 10% more shields…what disc priest wouldn’t?

As for the second issue of fairness: This is typical of the problems endemic to gearing tier pieces for a class that has two viable healing specs. Do I think it is a problem? Yes. I would have preferred to see the bonus tied to a talent in Disc since CoH is a spell gained by Holy priests via a talent. I wouldn’t even ask that the spell be tied as deep into our tree as CoH is in Holy. Perhaps tie it to Improved Power Word: Shield, the spell isn’t deep in our tree which would allow it hybrid priests to benefit from it as well.

All this aside, it doesn’t bring a holy priest’s shields on par with a disc which would be my only concern. *Points up to the start of the post* Is it fair that holy gets 10% bonus to CoH and 5% Shields and disc only gets 5% shields out of the same gear? Nope. Short of tying the 5% to a talent (like the CoH is) I don’t see it changing however. I’m glad to see the bonus makes more sense and is a solid bonus to both holy and disc priests instead of a proc the way it was before.

In general, I agree with your analysis here. I think if the 5% bonus were to Penance there’d be a lot more justification for Disc priests being upset, but as it is, since we can cast PW:S six times as often as Holy priests can cast CoH (assuming we’re haste capped), Disc priests are actually getting the larger buff.

As for the Renewed Hope change, I’m reasonably sure it’s completely ignorable for PVE circumstances, and that it’s actually a PVP nerf. The only situation where I can see the change making any difference is if an opposing player dispels Renewed Hope before the cooldown is up – and I’m not even sure RH can be dispelled!